Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

At a campaign rally Saturday night in Tulsa, Oklahoma, President Donald Trump said the problem with testing people for the coronavirus is that the tests keep finding infected people.

“Here’s the bad part,” Trump said during his 101-minute address in a half-full BOK Center. “When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases. So I said to my people, ‘Slow the testing down, please!’ ”

White House spokeswoman Alyssa Farah immediately sought to downplay Trump’s remarks, saying the president was joking, The Washington Post reported.

Many of the people at the rally did not wear masks or stand six feet apart, the New York Times reported. The campaign conducted temperature checks and handed out masks.

Six Trump campaign staff members who had been working on the rally tested positive for the coronavirus before the event, the Times reported. Two Secret Service members in Tulsa also tested positive for the virus, according to the Times.

Trump's comments came on the same day eight states reported their highest single-day case counts since the pandemic began, and daily new infections nationwide exceeded 30,000 on both Friday and Saturday.

More than 8.84 million people worldwide are known to have been infected with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus. More than 2.3 million, or about one-fourth of all cases, are in the United States. At least 465,475 people have died from the novel coronavirus worldwide, including more than 119,854 in the U.S.

Latest Developments

United States:

-States across the South and West — Florida, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Nevada and Missouri — set records for single-day confirmed cases on Saturday, and 13 states reached highs in seven-day new-case averages, the Post reported.

-Florida and South Carolina both had a third straight day breaking single-day records for news cases.

-Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said cases are "shifting in a radical direction" toward populations in their 20s and 30s. "We're also seeing that not only are they testing positive because they're testing more, they're also testing positive at a higher rate increasingly over the last week," DeSantis said, adding there's evidence of transmission between those younger groups.

-South Carolina health officials said 18% of the state's total cases come from people between the ages of 21 and 30. "The increases that we're seeing serve as a warning that young adults and youth are not immune to COVID-19," said Dr. Brannon Traxler, the state's Department of Health and Environmental Control physician consultant. "They also tell us that younger South Carolinians are not taking social distancing seriously."

-The Yankees and Mets have moved spring training back to their home stadiums in New York after M.L.B. temporarily closed all spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona for deep cleanings. Five teams — the Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Houston Astros — have confirmed that players, other employees or people connected to them have tested positive or exhibited symptoms of Covid-19.

-Actor and comedian D.L. Hughley tested positive for coronavirus after collapsing on stage because of extreme exhaustion and dehydration during a performance Friday night in Nashville, Tennessee. He announced his diagnosis in an Instagram video post Saturday night.

Worldwide:

China said it is temporarily suspending poultry imports from a Tyson Foods slaughterhouse that has had coronavirus cases among its workers, the New York Times reported. Shipments from the slaughterhouse that have already arrived in China will also be seized, the customs agency said in a public notice.

Spain reopened its borders to European tourists Sunday as it ended a national state of emergency after three months of lockdown, AP reported. For the first time since March 14, Spain's 47 million residents can freely travel around the country.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.